the ABC station is NOT O&O by ABC, it is Allbritton and they have no immediate plans for their news to go HD as they do not want to pay the money out right now. Robert Forsyth mentioned it in a couple of his posts. But they did put out a 3rd subchannel, so it does appear that they want to make money and HD does not bring in the money and that is what it is all about.

I apologize. I stand corrected. For some reason, I was under the impression that ABC had purchased it during the 90s as there was so much talk about it at that time (and quite frankly never followed it that closely. For whatever reason, I thought that had materalized and gone through).

I've got more, PM me if you want more(I got about 17 total). Sorry the quality isn't the best on the last 2, the PC HDTV tuner doesn't as good a job with live motion HD screen captures. You can watch the tour on cbs3.com, but it's all pixilated and looks like garbage. On the news they showed the control room(s) and production rooms, news feed room, all in HD. I'm working on getting that exported to my computer, and uploaded(the tour, in HD).

Those KYW screens look very nice. What format are they using for remotes (4:3 SD, 16:9 SD, HD)?

Live remotes are 16:9 SD, but field reports taped and editted I'm pretty sure are in glorious HD! During the tour the anchor held up an HD disc(Blu-Ray I guess), and inserted it into an HD editor, and said that enables everyone to have instant access to that raw HD footage, across the station's network.

I could clearly see Sony XDcam HD cameras and Sony tapes that say "RE-23GB" 23GB rewritable.

Someone else will have to confirm that, but I'm pretty sure their non-live reports are in HD, (it sure looked like it!)

Their control rooms and studio look freaking amazing. WPVI and WTXF may have beaten KYW to the punch, but KYW's new digs look like they blow anyone out of the water. In one of the reports online, they said something about call them and set up a tour of their new facility! I bet if you got a time when someone with some technical expertise is availible for like 10-15 minutes, you could learn and see a lot of really cool stuff.

Admittedly, I don't have such "sources". Let's put it this way: What elements are there in local news? There's story selection. Then there's the person who writes it. How unbiased and fair, or otherwise, is the writing for each story? Then there's presentation. How do they say it? Is it firm? Uplifting? Gaudy? Fast? Slow? Also, how trustworthy are the anchors? How often have they been right with stories? Are they fixtures of the community? Are they relied on with vigor by viewers? The last three factors there are usually determined by local anchors. Then there are factors outside of journalistic quality, like PQ, set design, graphics, and the amount of commercials.

WJLA 7 has pretty bad graphics, a dated set, amateur-hour music, pretty much second-rate upconverters and encoders, and fast-growing ratings. How is that last part possible if technical quality is the only thing people judge a newscast on? No, I truly suspect it's because of the quality of the journalism.

Do you remember when WJLA was in the ratings doldrums? They were third or fourth in most timeslots, and needed help. So WJLA did something bold and different: They paid lots of money to get big names to work for them. They wooed Doug Hill, Gordon Peterson, and Maureen Bunyan from WUSA. They brought in Doug McKelway from WRC. They brought in Leon Harris from CNN. These were big names, who delivered quality journalism, and big ratings at their old haunts. They were trusted names in the area, and in one case, around the country. Then they brought in Allison Starling for some eye candy + hard journalism in the mornings. You know what? Their ratings are up. They're giving News4 (WRC) a run for their money at 5 PM, and occasionally beating them in the 25-54 demos. They've had heavy gains in most other, if not all, newscasts, and they so far haven't showed signs of peaking, lack of HD and all. I suspect that if 7 hasn't needed HD to get those ratings gains so far, then they won't need it for a good while longer.

"In recent months, other stations have begun broadcasting their news in HD. We at ABC7 News haven't had the time. We're too busy covering the stories you want most. We're too busy sweating every detail, making sure you get the most accurate information [insert Doug Hill reading weather data on his computer]. We're too busy making sure you get breaking news first. While they're working to show you every pore, at ABC 7 News, we're working to give you the best news in Washington."

Interesting blurb this morning from DCRTV.com about WJLA. It seems to contradict that their ratings are on the upswing.

Morale Sinks At 7 As Lord Tries To Boost News Numbers - 4/3 - From our mole at Channel 7: "As if morale at WJLA couldn't get any lower, management is planning a major shakeup over the next few weeks in an attempt to boost ratings after a disappointing February sweeps. The ABC station was down across the board, even coming in a distant fourth in two of its newscasts. Just six months ago they held the number two spot. WJLA veterans blame the drop in ratings on the influx of inexperienced reporters, and rotating anchors in the evening since the departure of Kathleen Matthews last fall. Now everyone is seeing their schedules juggled as management tries to beef up their morning and late shows... Insiders say if the ratings don't improve during May, news veep Bill Lord will be looking for a new job".....

I got the 3 minute video tour of the new KYW studio they showed on the first 11:00 HD news broadcast. MPEG2 full resolution. Unfortunetly I had to resort to megaupload, but it will work just be patient. It's about 400MB.

"The network-caliber Newsroom, designed by Janson Design Group in New York, will be the first newsroom in the market to be completely tapeless and high definition both in-studio and in the field. Built from the ground up in HD, the operation includes all new high definition cameras, editing equipment and a technical operations center. We will be shooting all of our stories in high definition giving the viewer a more complete sense of literally being there,' says Vice President and News Director Susan Schiller. This is the next generation of electronic news -- the biggest leap in technology since the 1970s when reporters first began reporting live on location from the field.

Not sure if this was posted - I didnt get a chance to go thru all the pages. But in Chicago the ABC ch 7 broadcast is sweet. 16 x 9 great pic with a HD chopper camera too. I dont even check the other channels so they may have went up to HD but ch 7 ABC beat them to it.

I've never understood why one of our local affiliates here in Kansas City doesn't jump on the HD express and wipe out the other local news channels. Everything I've read is that market share for local news outlets has jumped up precipitously every time a local affiliate migrates to HD for their news programming.

Right now, we're still stuck with the 4 network affiliates pumping us std-def typical news fare -- the "old someone/something stole/killed/burned...oh, and here's the weather" Frankly, I never watch the local news because it's always the same drivel; however, if one of them went to HD I actually would periodically tune in.

I've never understood why one of our local affiliates here in Kansas City doesn't jump on the HD express and wipe out the other local news channels. Everything I've read is that market share for local news outlets has jumped up precipitously every time a local affiliate migrates to HD for their news programming.

If there is a jump in ratings it does not last long. No one has shown a long term marked increase in ratings directly accountable to going HD.

Another CBS station made an "improvement" with their news broadcast. WHIO in Dayton is in 16:9 as of April 1st. Note I didn't say in "HD", just 16:9. That said, it looks damn good ! New graphics are part of the change too and they're sharp looking.

What they're doing with field reports and what not, I can't say. They seem to only like "bad" news and if that means leading the broadcast with 5-10 minutes of negative stories, they'll do it. I change the channel....

I've never understood why one of our local affiliates here in Kansas City doesn't jump on the HD express and wipe out the other local news channels. Everything I've read is that market share for local news outlets has jumped up precipitously every time a local affiliate migrates to HD for their news programming.

Right now, we're still stuck with the 4 network affiliates pumping us std-def typical news fare -- the "old someone/something stole/killed/burned...oh, and here's the weather" Frankly, I never watch the local news because it's always the same drivel; however, if one of them went to HD I actually would periodically tune in.

The local ABC, KMBC Channel 9 is building a new station off of I435 and 63rd St on the Missouri side. According to the website it should be equipped with HD stuff and I would assume it will start broadcasting their news in HD. Looks like they will move this summer, so just a few months away.

I've never understood why one of our local affiliates here in Kansas City doesn't jump on the HD express and wipe out the other local news channels. Everything I've read is that market share for local news outlets has jumped up precipitously every time a local affiliate migrates to HD for their news programming.

Perhaps you can give us the links of "Everything I've read is that market share for local news outlets has jumped up precipitously every time a local affiliate migrates to HD for their news programming" as that is the most ridiculous (and farthest from the truth) statement I have read in some time.

"The network-caliber Newsroom, designed by Janson Design Group in New York, will be the first newsroom in the market to be completely tapeless and high definition both in-studio and in the field. Built from the ground up in HD, the operation includes all new high definition cameras, editing equipment and a technical operations center. We will be shooting all of our stories in high definition giving the viewer a more complete sense of literally being there,' says Vice President and News Director Susan Schiller. This is the next generation of electronic news -- the biggest leap in technology since the 1970s when reporters first began reporting live on location from the field.

This is what happens when you build an HD news studio / control room from absolute scratch, like what KYW has done. The result is a much more high-tech environment than what you can get from retrofitting a current control room/building.

Let's see if they can report live and in HD first in the Philly market.

This is what happens when you build an HD news studio / control room from absolute scratch, like what KYW has done. The result is a much more high-tech environment than what you can get from retrofitting a current control room/building.

In all due respect, its pretty obvious you have never been involved in building one of these - because no one retrofits a current control room. It would be out of the loop for literally months at a time - which means they could not do the news up until that point, so literally 99% of the new HD News Master Controls are built from scratch.

I'm not sure if anyone watching KABC Eyewitness News in LA noticed, but "home video" footage from the sinking of the M/S Sea Diamond off of Greece looked to be in HD and was shown that way, it looked better than the 16:9 SD remote footage. There was also HD home video footage from last week's fire near Burbank and Universal City. Has there been any other accounts of HDV home videos being shown in true HD on supported newscasts?

I'm not sure if anyone watching KABC Eyewitness News in LA noticed, but "home video" footage from the sinking of the M/S Sea Diamond off of Greece looked to be in HD and was shown that way, it looked better than the 16:9 SD remote footage. There was also HD home video footage from last week's fire near Burbank and Universal City. Has there been any other accounts of HDV home videos being shown in true HD on supported newscasts?

It wasn't HD, but widescreen SD.

There is no one doing local HD News in the TampaBay area, but the cable's BayNews 9 put 4:3 with Wings on today - which appears to be a step towards moving to HD News on the local cable outlet.

The graphics are still SD and 4:3, so it does not integrate well, but its clearly part of the equipment needed for making the transisition - and much further along than 95% of the TV stations in America.